This weekend it will be exactly 15 years since the small Bosnian town of Srebrenica became synonymous with the biggest massacre to take place in Europe since World War II. Bosnian Serb forces killed over 8000 Muslim men and boys from the enclave. The father of Alma Mustafic, who worked for the UN troops in Bosnia, was among those murdered. 

Rizo Mustafic had been working as an electrician for the Dutch UN battalion for three years when the Bosnian Serb troops took control of Srebrenica on 11 July 1995. Together with his family, Rizo Mustafic took refuge in what he thought was the safety of the Dutch UN military base, along with tens of thousands of others. Mr Mustafic was allowed in and was put on a list of people that the Dutch troops were allowed to evacuate. But at the last moment, Alma and her mother looked on in horror as Rizo was forced to leave and was handed over to the Serbs.

”It all happened so fast. He was simply pushed to one side and we were pushed to the other. We had no choice but to walk on. What I remember most is that I kept looking behind me, trying to see him one last time. And my mother kept shouting: 'Don’t look back! Don’t look back or else we’ll have to stay here too!”

That was the last time Alma saw her father. Since then there has been no trace of him. Not even his remains have been found. 

Stupid error
After the fall of Srebrenica, Alma emigrated to the Netherlands. It was what her father wanted. He said he did not want her to grow up in a corrupt country. Alma has since given up her Bosnian nationality and now teaches tax law at a higher education college in Utrecht. 

She says she doesn’t mind living in the country that let her down in 1995:

”I don’t believe individual soldiers could have done much to change things. I’m convinced that if the military command had taken a different position, it would all have ended very differently. To think that my father – who was given 100 percent assurances of protection – was sent to his death by a stupid error made by some personnel officer ... That really hurts. You can’t help thinking, he could have been here now. And not a word of apology.”

Mistakes
What Alma cannot accept is the great uncertainty that still surrounds exactly what happened in Srebrenica. She wants the truth to be revealed at last and for the Dutch government to admit that mistakes were made.

”If the Netherlands did nothing wrong, then why are there so many confidential documents that we are not even allowed to see? The Dutch knew how many murders were taking place and that there would be killings on a massive scale in the days that followed. If the facts were to come to light, I think it would be possible to prove by law what we have known for a long time: that the Dutch government made a great many mistakes and that they are simply afraid of massive claims for damages.”

This week it was announced that Alma Mustafic, along with other victims’ families, has asked the Public Prosecutors to bring criminal charges against the former commanders of the UN peacekeepers in Srebrenica.

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The long road to exhumation

by Cintia Taylor

It has been 15 years since the Srebrenica genocide, but the exhumation of mass graves is still a regular occurrence in the region. So far 73 graves have been excavated, leading to the identification of 6,481 victims. But with 1,500 people still missing, investigators believe it is more than likely that yet more mass graves will be uncovered.

The most recently opened grave around Srebrenica is in Zalazje. The 45 metre long and 15 metre wide site is believed to be one of six to eight mass graves which relate to the Kravica warehouse massacre, where approximately 1,000 men were killed by hand grenades.

Forensic experts from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) say it is a secondary grave. That means the bodies were moved from the original place of burial and were dismembered and fragmented during the process. 

ICMP's director-general Kathryne Bomberger says this is one of the main obstacles to the identification of victims: "Extensive efforts went into removing the bodies from one set of mass grave sites to others so they would be hidden forever." She gives the example of one man whose remains were found at 11 different locations. 

Ms Bomberger also points to the fact that those who participated in the killings remain silent and are refusing to cooperate with investigators. Discovering new mass graves therefore depends solely on eye-witness accounts and on the findings of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.